Queen cell finishing colonies (“cell finishers”) are usually queenright and the cells are finished off under the supersedure impulse after they have been started in another colony (“cell starters”) under the emergency impulse. Starters are used because queenright colonies are usually reluctant to start more than a small number of Q/Cs.

Cells are usually in the starter colony for 24 hours before being transferred to the finisher.

There are several methods of setting up cell finishers and individual beekeepers have their own variations to suit themselves. I will break the different methods down in blogs.